Chateauroux/Paris: The ebullient Manu Bhaker fell short of making more Olympic history by a whisker, capping an otherwise magnificent campaign with a fourth-place finish in 25m pistol competition while archer Deepika Kumari crumbled after raising hopes at the Paris Games on Saturday.
Manu, Independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics, looked on course to add an unprecedented third one to her tally, only to be denied by low scores at crucial junctures of a high-quality final.
India’s tally remained at three medals with the country occupying the 49th place in the pecking order.
After the lull on Saturday, an action-packed Sunday awaits the Indian contingent as badminton ace Lakshya Sen locks horns with the formidable Viktor Axelsen of Denmark for a place in the men’s singles semifinals, Tokyo Games bronze-winning boxer Lovlina Borgohain taking on China’s Li Qian with another podium finish at stake, and the hockey team playing Great Britain in the quarterfinals.
Earlier in the day, Manu shot 28 in the final to be tied at third place along with Hungarian ace Veronika after the eighth series of five shots each.
She missed two of the five shots to aggregate three points, while Veronika drilled in four bullets into the target to clinch the third spot, leaving Bhaker to pack up the kit and leave her firing station.
Bhaker gave it her all and was placed No.1 among eight shooters for a brief period, but she could not maintain her consistency and eventually finished fourth.
Nonetheless, the 22-year-old will return home with her twin bronze-medal feat in women’s 10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol partnering Sarabjot Singh.
Admirably carrying the weight of expectations of millions of Indians, Bhaker stood up to the challenge even after slipping to sixth position early in the final.
Bhaker conceded at the end of the contest that she was nervous, and no matter how hard she tried to remain calm, she couldn’t.
“I got like really nervous about it, but again, I was trying my best to keep calm and to just try to do my best. But that was not enough,” Manu said after the event.
The first series was a disaster in which Manu missed three out of five targets, but gradually she cut down on the errors and bounced back in the second and third series, shooting two consecutive ‘fours’ to take her points tally to 10 going into the elimination round.
The elimination round was topsy-turvy to say the least. Manu’s chances waxed and waned until she took the top spot for a brief period in the seventh series (fourth elimination round).
However, South Korea’s Jin Yang wrested back the top spot immediately even as Manu slipped to tied third with three bad misses in the eighth round, which saw her slump from second spot to joint third with Veronika on 28 points.
The shoot-off was nerve-jangling for both the markswomen and Manu had three clear shots out of five on target, while Veronika had four.
Naruka bows out, women too disappoint in skeet
At the shotgun range, Indian skeet shooter Anant Jeet Singh Naruka finished a distant 24th among 30 shooters at the end of the five qualification rounds with an aggregate of 116 out of 125 shots.
Naruka, who had shot 23, 22 and 23 on Day 1 of qualification on Friday, had identical 24s in the last two qualifying rounds.
Six shooters make it to the final.
In the women’s skeet event, India’s Maheshwari Chauhan was closely following the leading pack at eighth position with an aggregate of 71 after Day 1 of qualification. She shot 23, 24 and 24.
Raiza Dhillon was placed 25th among 29 shooters with an aggregate of 66 (21, 22, 23).
Deepika fails to decode Olympic puzzle as archery campaign ends
In Paris, the seasoned Deepika placed herself in an advantageous position against Korea’s Suhyeon Nam by winning two of the first three sets but shot a horrible 7 with the second arrow of the fourth set to squander a great opportunity as the country’s archery campaign ended at the Games.
Deepika had begun the day well with a 6-4 win over Germany’s Michelle Kroppen but lost by the same margin to Nam, who had won the women’s team gold on Friday.
Teenager Bhajan Kaur was eliminated earlier in the day after losing her pre-quarterfinal match to Indonesia’s Diananda Choirunisa in a shoot-off.
Competing in her fourth Olympics, Deepika yet again left the big stage empty-handed. However, there was no hype around her this time, following the disappointments in London, Rio and Tokyo editions.
The fourth-place finish by Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara in the mixed team event was India’s best performance in archery in the French capital.
Nethra placed 24th in women’s sailing; Saravanan 23rd in men’s event
At the Marseille Marina, India’s Nethra Kumanan endured a tough day in the women’s dighy sailing event’s opening series as she slipped to 24th spot after Race 6.
Having finished 11th after three races on Friday, the 26-year-old slumped after three more races on Saturday.
As for the men’s dighy event, Vishnu Saravanan was placed 23rd after Race 6.
